Sakineh (Mohammadhi-Ashtiani)

Iranian woman sentenced by an arbitrary court to stoning for adultery / Supported by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (24 August 2010)

“So they will spill your blood and deprive your children of their mother, but why? Because you have lived, because you have loved, because you are a woman, an Iranian? With every fibre of my being, I refuse to accept that.” On August 24, 2010, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy published a letter pledging support for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, on the La Règle du jeu (‘Rules of the Game’) website “From the depths of your cell, remember that my husband will plead your cause tirelessly and that France will not abandon you.”

Accused of adultery and complicity in murder against her husband, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was imprisoned in 2006, in Tabriz, North-West Iran. A kangaroo court condemned her to death for her “crimes” – confessed under torture – and the sentence was pronounced in a language the accused did not understand! Although the Iranian authorities had cleared her of all suspicion of murder, in a prime time TV programme on 11 August 2010, the regime broadcast a testimony designed to sow confusion in the media: presented as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman covered in a black chador, which left only her nose and eyes visible, was heard to ‘confess’ her guilt.

A broad support movement is emerging worldwide, involving demonstrations, petitions, protests and human rights advocacy organisations, statements by political figures (the U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton), and an offer of political asylum from the Brazilian government.

Published simultaneously in Libération, Elle and the Huffington Post, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s letter added to the messages from Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Bertrand Delanoë and Segolene Royal as well as the many signatures of major figures from around the world, such as Elisabeth Badinter, Juliette Binoche, the Iranian artist Sussan Deyhim, Mia Farrow, Bob Geldof, Milan Kundera, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Patrick Modiano, the designer of Iranian origin Marjane Satrapi, Jorge Semprun and Simone Veil, etc.

By October 2011, the petition launched by La Règle du jeu had garnered 172,284 signatures.